The oil prints featured in this exhibition were made with birds killed by the Rena oil spill. They are just two of an estimated 20,000 birds killed after the shipwrecked Rena spilled 350 tonnes of oil into the Bay of Plenty.

The images are a stark reminder of the devastation an oil spill can cause.

Yet if the government’s recent decision to open NZ waters to deep sea oil drilling is not reversed, future spills could be more than a thousand times worse.

Just last year the Deepwater Horizon leaked 627,000 tonnes of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Engineers spent months struggling to fix a problem 1.5 kilometres below the sea’s surface.
A spill that size in NZ waters would devastate our coastline and wildlife and seriously damage our fishing and tourism industries.

The global oil giants now prospecting in NZ waters have been involved in numerous serious oil spills worldwide including the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Yet the NZ government has invited them to drill here, at depths of up to 3km.

The prints made for the Oil On Canvas exhibition are all original prints made with the body of a little blue penguin and the oil that killed it following the Rena shipwreck in the Bay of Plenty. The prints are not numbered because each is an original. No more will be made. Some will be Contributed to galleries and some will be auctioned but we’re giving one away right here...

How to enter
To go in the draw to win simply make a comment below telling us what you think of the art! We'll choose our favourite comment and announcethe winner here on the 20th December. (This is only open to people in New Zealand and our word is final).